The Saturday Visiter Awards

The Saturday Visiter Awards are a new honor, presented by Poe Baltimore, recognizing Edgar Allan Poe’s continuing legacy in the arts and literature around the world. The prizes will honor media, art, performance and writing that adapts or is inspired by Poe’s life and works.

Though he was not wealthy in his lifetime, Edgar Allan Poe was the first American writer to support himself entirely by his pen. The Saturday Visiter was the name—and spelling—of a local periodical that held a contest for poetry and short stories. Poe won the award for his short story “MS Found in a Bottle” (which he wrote at Poe House.) The Saturday Visiter Awards are named after the prize a young Edgar Allan Poe won while he lived in Baltimore which helped to launch the famed writer’s career.

The Saturday Visiter Awards will be given out in two categories: works that adapt Poe’s life or writing(including biography, or true adaptations of his poetry or prose), and original works that are inspired by Poe’s life or writing. The awards will be presented at The International Edgar Allan Poe Festival & Awards in October 2019, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Poe Baltimore is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization created to fund, maintain and interpret The Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, and to celebrate the legacy of one of Baltimore’s most famous residents. The organization is dedicated to maintaining the museum as a vibrant experience for the thousands of visitors who come from around the world each year, and as part of a broader mission of city-wide events and educational opportunities celebrating Poe’s legacy in Baltimore and beyond.

Call for Entries Opens Jan 19

More information about The Saturday Visiter Awards will be posted in the coming weeks, but a list of frequently anticipated questions can be found here.